Collection: Charles C. Dawson & the Paradox of Black Beauty: Designing for Valmor & Lucky Brown (A Legacy of Artistry, Resistance, and Complicated Representation)

(On Display: 1934 Sweet Georgia Brown Hair Pomade Canister & 1938 Lucky Brown Pressing Oil Canister) 

Let’s talk truth.

Charles Clarence Dawson, a classically trained Black illustrator and commercial artist born in 1889, was a genius of the brush and pen, shaping the visual language of Black beauty long before the mainstream acknowledged our radiance. His work for Valmor Products, including the iconic imagery behind Lucky Brown, brought Black beauty to the forefront of American consumerism, even while it rested on uneasy ground.

As a Black historian, museum curator, and lifelong lover of our people, I say this without hesitation: Charles C. Dawson walked a tightrope between brilliance and contradiction.

Valmor was a white-owned company, capitalizing on Black dollars in segregated America. They sold beauty products like Lucky Brown Pressing Oil to Black communities with the soul-stirring imagery crafted by Dawson. The ads depicted elegant, regal Black men and women: polished, powerful, proud. These were not caricatures or exaggerated tropes; they were aspirational symbols of dignity.

Dawson used his platform not only to elevate the aesthetic of Black life, but to reclaim our image in a visual world flooded with dehumanization. His art offered a counter-narrative: that Blackness was beautiful, stylish, and worthy of admiration. That mattered. Representation matters. And he gave us that in bold lines, soft shadows, and soulful eyes.

But we must also name the contradiction: these beautiful images were used to sell Black people back to themselves, lining the pockets of white corporations that did not reinvest in our communities, did not uplift Black business ownership, and often reinforced European beauty norms under the surface.

So yes, Lucky Brown was not Black-owned.

And yes, its success reveals the systemic barriers that kept so many Black entrepreneurs out of the industry they defined and sustained.

But the presence of Charles C. Dawson within that system? That’s where the revolution lived. He made Blackness look powerful in a time when America tried to make us invisible. He left a legacy of visual resistance, showing us how art can be used both for and against us, and why we must always push for control over our own image, industry, and identity.

“Charles C. Dawson painted us in ways America refused to see, but we saw ourselves. His work reminds us that even within white-owned walls, Black genius finds a way to shine.”

- Dr. Tracy P. Washington (Curator, United Crowns Mobile Museum of Black History & Culture)